The new and improved Feed experience of the Google app is experiencing a number of distribution issues on Android devices, the Alphabet-owned company confirmed on Sunday. In a statement provided to Recode, a Google spokesperson said that the main issue preventing a smoother distribution of the functionality to all Android-powered smartphones and tablets pertains to the manner in which the Google app is meant to be accessed on these devices. A large number of consumers are already used to accessing the service by simply swiping right on their system home screens and the Mountain View, California-based tech giant designed the new Feed to load as soon as the user does so. However, an unspecified development issue is currently preventing some smartphones and tablets from loading the Feed following that gesture and the company is currently in the process of doing a better job of integrating the functionality into its ubiquitous operating system, Google said.
According to the firm’s official comment on the matter, the launch of the feature on devices that are yet to receive it may “take slightly longer” than the Internet giant originally planned, though the company didn’t provide a more specific time frame to accompany that announcement. Whereas Google is now struggling to update the Android version of its service with the new functionality, Alphabet’s subsidiary apparently had no issues with distributing the feature to the iOS build of its mobile solution.
The Feed itself is essentially a redesigned version of a similar feature that Google already debuted in late 2016, though the company reportedly significantly improved its content aggregation algorithms in the last seven months and claims that the latest solution is much better at identifying content you may be interested in. The service is powered by the firm’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and is primarily looking to act as a content hub that users will like to browse from time to time and stay on top of all topics they’re interested in. As such, the functionality is more or less looking to compete with Facebook and Twitter’s news feeds in the sense that it wants users to see the Google app as not just a tool for getting answers to specific questions, but a compilation of recent updates on all subjects they care about.